Society and the World

Man is only a reed, the weakest thing in nature; but he is a thinking reed.

Hollywood money isn’t money. It’s congealed snow, melts in your hand, and there you are.

Guns aren’t lawful;

Guns aren’t lawful;

Let us sleep now.

Whatever hope is yours,

I am the enemy you killed, my friend.

Was it for this the clay grew tall?

It seemed that out of battle I escaped

The pallor of girls’ brows shall be their pall;

If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood

The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?

My subject is War, and the pity of War.

All a poet can do today is warn.

The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it.

Whatever is funny is subversive, every joke is ultimately a custard pie … A dirty joke is a sort of mental rebellion.

Saints should always be judged guilty until they are proved innocent.

Saints should always be judged guilty until they are proved innocent.

In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defence of the indefensible.

In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defence of the indefensible.

Political language … is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.

Political language … is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.

If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—for ever.